These disinformation researchers saw the coronavirus 'infodemic' coming

For a handful of disinformation researchers, the information crisis that has unfolded around the coronavirus pandemic seemed inevitable... get a sense of what we should be watching for and what the internet might look like after the virus has passed...

Joan Donovan... coined "strategic silence," editorial discretion ... notion that users could be both producers and consumers of information ... people are forced to sift through increasingly dangerous garbage in the search for real information... Information is extremely cheap to produce... Knowledge is incredibly expensive to produce... suggesting that the platforms should move beyond moderation to a kind of curation...

Claire Wardle... of First Draft ... lobbying... particularly Facebook, to exercise greater collaboration, transparency and accountability in the fight against misinformation... they would nod and smile ... And then... infodemic... no surprises — they weren't ready... hosts a 24/7 workspace where journalists and academics collaborate in real time... feeling for "the tipping point," ... when reporting on mis- and dis-information is worthwhile...

coronavirus ... unprecedented opportunity... blurred lines between ... groups, uniting fringe activists and conspiracy theorists around a similar distrust of institutions ...

platforms... trumpet these transparency initiatives, but they're marking their own homework...

pandemic ... helped people recognize how harmful misinformation can be ...

Kate Starbird... work has focused on how misinformation and disinformation spread during crisis events... next wave of disinformation... will be more exploitative... more disinformation, conspiracy theorizing and politicization... If ... scientists ... are delegitimized by disinformation campaigns, then we're ... vulnerable...

a superhighway for ... wildest ... conspiracy theories to enter the mainstream... unlike science, they are uncomplicated and explain a chaotic world ... gives the believer a feeling of control...